


The World is Full of Obvious Things

by cosmic_llin



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Confessions, F/F, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Misunderstandings, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25378720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: Miss Hardbroom is acting strangely. Mildred is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Relationships: Ada Cackle/Hecate Hardbroom, Hecate Hardbroom & Mildred Hubble
Comments: 28
Kudos: 81
Collections: The Hackle Summer Trope Challenge





	The World is Full of Obvious Things

The first clue was when Miss Hardbroom finished the lesson early. 

Mildred had been grappling with the measuring exercises she’d set them, and actually not doing too badly. Miss Hardbroom quite often had her do measuring exercises in detention and the extra practice seemed to be helping. She was pretty confident she’d be in the middle of the pack at the very least when they were marked at the end of the lesson, but about halfway through, Miss Hardbroom rapped the table for attention and said sharply:

‘Girls, the lesson is over, we’ll resume next time. Please pack up your things and go to the library until lunchtime.’

Why couldn’t this have happened on a day that Mildred was struggling? She looked over to see what could have prompted this extremely uncharacteristic move, and saw an older girl hovering in the doorway, and a note in Miss Hardbroom’s hand. So, she’d had some kind of urgent message – but what was urgent enough that Miss Hardbroom would end a lesson half finished? And so urgent that, right now, she was transferring away without even checking to make sure they’d tidied up properly?

‘Something’s wrong,’ Mildred hissed to Enid. ‘Miss Hardbroom _never_ cancels lessons. The only times she’s ever done it, it’s been because the school’s in some kind of trouble.’

Enid shrugged. ‘It’s probably just that something came up. Come on, we’ve got half a lesson to do whatever we like!’

‘Miss Hardbroom said to go to the library…’ Maud reminded them.

‘I’m not going to the library,’ Mildred said. ‘I’m going to find out what’s happening. If the school’s in trouble, maybe I can help. You two can come if you like.’

The two of them argued back and forth about it while Mildred stuffed her things into her bag and hurried out, but they still followed. 

They hadn’t done discovery spells yet, but there were only so many places Miss Hardbroom could be. Mildred picked a direction on instinct, heading downward towards the cellars.

‘I don’t think she’s here, Millie,’ said Maud, after their thorough search of the dusty cellars had turned up nothing.

Enid sneezed.

‘She’s got to be somewhere,’ said Mildred. ‘Let’s try the hall next.’

But Miss Hardbroom wasn’t in the hall, or any of the towers, or in the broom shed. 

The broom shed was where Maud and Enid abandoned her – it was lunchtime and they were hungry.

‘You can give up,’ said Mildred. ‘I’m carrying on until I get to the bottom of this.’

She watched Enid and Maud go, and tried to ignore the growling of her stomach. She gave the grounds one last, fruitless sweep.

Maybe they were right. Maybe, at the very least, some lunch would give her more stamina to complete her quest. She made her way back into the castle – and just like that, there was Miss Hardbroom, stalking through the entrance hall, Miss Cackle in hot pursuit.

‘Hecate, you’re in rather a hurry,’ Miss Cackle was saying. ‘Is everything all right?’

Miss Hardbroom practically jumped out of her skin. ‘Ada! No… I mean yes… everything’s fine. Completely normal. Nothing out of the ordinary happening.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Miss Cackle, with a brilliant smile.

How had she fallen for that? Even Mildred could tell that Miss Hardbroom was lying. Something was _seriously_ wrong.

Mildred lost track of Miss Hardbroom a bit during afternoon lessons, but the second she was free again she resumed the hunt, and soon afterward she was rewarded by the echo of Miss Hardbroom’s voice from the next corridor.

She peeked around the corner, and saw Miss Hardbroom and Miss Drill in the middle of what seemed to be a tense conversation.

‘It’s no good!’ Miss Hardbroom was saying, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. ‘If it isn’t finished by tonight then everything is ruined, _everything_!’

Mildred ducked back, her heart pounding. What did _everything_ mean? After all the times the school had nearly been destroyed, was this the time it was finally going to happen?

No.

Not if Mildred Hubble had anything to say about it.

She cautiously looked down the corridor again – Miss Drill was hurrying away, and Miss Hardbroom was still standing there. Did she look anguished? Mildred thought she might look anguished.

‘Are they going to close the school?’ she demanded, coming fully around the corner.

Miss Hardbroom stared. ‘I… beg your pardon?’

‘If it’s not that, then I know something's happening! You’ve been acting weird all day – you finished our lesson early and you told Miss Drill that everything was going to be ruined! And I _know_ you would never hide anything from Miss Cackle unless you were trying to protect her!’

Miss Hardbroom let out a shocked sound that was almost like a laugh. ‘Mildred…’ she said. ‘That’s not what… you’ve misunderstood...’

‘Then what _is_ happening?’

‘Something that is _none of your business_.’

Mildred folded her arms and fixed Miss Hardbroom with her stoniest gaze. ‘If it concerns the school then I think it’s _all_ of our business.’

‘Mildred… it’s nothing to do with the school.’

‘What else could it possibly be about?!’

Miss Hardbroom raised her eyebrows. ‘I do have a life outside being your teacher, Mildred Hubble.’

Huh. Mildred had never really thought about that before.

She wasn’t _completely_ ignorant. Back at her old school, she’d always known that the teachers went home to their own lives at the end of the day. Like Ms Adebayo, who they’d sometimes seen at the supermarket with her kids, or on the bus going to her dance lesson while Mildred and her mum went to the cinema. Or Zofia, the teaching assistant who lived in their block, and who said Mildred only had to call her Miss Santos when they were in class.

But… Miss Hardbroom _lived_ at the school. She was a teacher at breakfast first thing every morning, she was a teacher all through lessons, she was still a teacher last thing at night when she did her final patrol of Mildred’s corridor. How did she have the time for anything else?

No, something still didn’t add up.

‘If it’s nothing to do with the school, why did you cancel our lesson?’ she asked. ‘Why were you talking to Miss Drill about it? And why would you need to hide it from Miss Cackle?’

‘ _Because_ , Mildred Hubble,’ said Miss Hardbroom, through gritted teeth, ‘it is a _surprise_ for Miss Cackle.’

At Mildred’s old school, one of her teachers had put in her report that she was “relentlessly curious” and “dogged to an almost Inquisition-esque degree”. Which was a bit unfair when really she just liked to have a full understanding of a situation.

‘If it’s just a surprise for Miss Cackle, why were you so upset about it?’

‘Because some parts of the surprise did not arrive on schedule and it is time sensitive.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it is a surprise intended to commemorate a particular event.’

Mildred smiled. If you hit them with enough questions they eventually let something interesting slip out of sheer confusion.

‘What event?’

‘The first time Miss Cackle and I…’

‘The first time you _what_?’

Miss Hardbroom sighed, defeated. ‘To put it in your youthful parlance, our... _first date_.’

‘What?!’

‘You wanted to know, and now you do,’ said Miss Hardbroom primly.

Oh yikes. This was _way_ more information than Mildred had been looking for, but really she only had herself to blame. And somehow she _still_ couldn’t stop.

‘How long has this been going on?!’ she asked.

Miss Hardbroom rolled her eyes. ‘Longer than you’ve been alive.’

The idea of any relationship lasting that long was mind-boggling. Of course her grandparents had been together for decades, but that was the sort of thing you expected from grandparents. You didn’t expect it from teachers. Not these particular ones, anyway.

For once Mildred was lost for words, but luckily just then Miss Drill reappeared, hurrying down the corridor towards them.

‘Hecate!’ she was saying. ‘It’s fine! It’s all sorted!’

Miss Hardbroom smiled. ‘Lucky for you, Mildred,’ she said, ‘I’m now in a good mood. So we’ll speak no more of your ridiculous behaviour today.’

‘What’s the surprise?’ Mildred dared to ask.

‘ _That_ ,’ said Miss Hardbroom, as she walked away, ‘you most certainly don’t need to know.’


End file.
